I am not a morning person. It seems important to say that because I post a daily Morning Shuffle which features music I listen to between 6:45 a.m. (or so) and 7:15 a.m. (or so). I just wanted you to know that I don't do a morning shuffle because I am a morning person, but rather by current necessity, I have to be up and about by this time, and being a non-morning person, I need a soundtrack of cool music to keep me moving.... This is my soundtrack for Monday morning January 5, 2015.
"American Girl" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
What a great song to start the soundtrack. It's like I'm heading off to work, and everything is just about okay at least for the first scene. Everything may well go to hell in scene two, but at this point, everything is swell. This was the second single from the self-titled debut by TP and the Heartbreakers.
So, apparently, there are many other versions of this song???? I found #17 in my search and some that were not labeled with a number... I don't really know the history of this, but I know a cool song when I hear it. This one got me through the awkward transition scene where I am on the road and maybe credits are still flashing... From Poison the Hit Parade.
"I Can't Help Myself" by Jason and the Scorchers
There was a certain reckless country soul to the seminal music of Nashville's Jason and the Scorchers. People like to throw around the term CowPunk, but I have always hated that term. It was raw, fresh high-energy rock and roll music that was only punk in sense that many early 80s Nashville punk kids really got into their music. In a different universe, Jason and the Scorchers are one of the biggest bands ever. In the universe they are one of the best. Some high-energy aggression to help me navigate the passive-aggressiveness of Nashville drivers.
"Bulletproof" by J.R. Wyatt
At this point, the frenetic part of my drive is over and I'm just easing into downtown roadways and making my way past delivery trucks on 2nd Avenue partially blocking lanes of traffic, but what do I care? I'm Bulletproof. Another great tune from The Empty Room Sessions.
"Firewater" by Old Crow Medicine Show
By now, I've just about made it to my parking lot. Our third Nashville artist in a row. Legendary Nashville string band Old Crow Medicine Show with this track from their 2014 Remedy album pushes my that final 1,000 feet or so through Bicentennial Mall.
"The Sunflower Sutra" by Allen Ginsberg
And then I begin my walk. It's a cold morning, but I don't care. I may be just another schmo dressed how I don't want to be dressed and trudging through life, but in my ear buds is Allen Ginsberg, and I feel subversive in the midst of my conformity. And I am transported somewhere, San Francisco, and I am thinking I should have been a Beat Poet, if I had been born in a different era. And, I should have been a Beat Poet anyway, and I should be a Beat Poet anyway, and I will be a Beat Poet anyway...
"Are You Ready for the Country?" by Jason and the Scorchers
And there isn't really a good way to move from Allen Ginsberg to Jason and the Scorchers stunningly powerful cover of the Neil Young song which had already been covered by Waylon Jennings, but which the band made their very own.... I grabbed this off the now out of print CD named for this song which compiled the bands first two EMI recordings with some b-sides and rarities. I begin my long ascent of capitol hill to this song...
"Rock Hard" by Alex Chilton
Like Flies on Sherbert is a broken, shattered masterpiece of an album. Alex Chilton was a mad wrecked genius of man, and Jim Dickinson was the alchemist who held this crazy thing together. At this point, I've reached the summit, and I don't necessary like what I've found there, but I can still appreciate that I have made it.
"Bitchin' Camaro" by The Dead Milkmen
I don't know how many times I heard this song on college radio back in the day or how many times I heard it once I bought the album Big Lizard in my Backyard. With it's ridiculous spoken introduction which may well be longer than the song itself (it has to be longer) and which includes an offensive cover version of Love Me Two Times... to the break-neck nonsense of the song itself... which for no reason but some rhyme, name drops Tony Orlando and Dawn... The fact that I (to date) have never gotten tired of this song says something about the song or about me... probably me...
"Down on Up to Me" by Soul Asylum
And I reach my office, and the vast soundtrackless day awaits, but there is one final scene of riding the elevator... From Hang Time...
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